Great news from the blogosphere this week. You can now add Evernote for Salesforce.com to a custom object. Often in order to adapt Salesforce.com to better suite the workflows of our specific business we add custom objects.

In our Salesforce.com org we have a custom built Projects Object where we track Project Progress and all sorts of other client related information. It works great. That said another application we use extensively is Evernote. I have to admit I love this little app. It enables me to as my son says to "just remember stuff" and get to it from any device.

When Evernote for Salesforce was first announced at Dreamforce '13 last November I was excited but at the same time a little disappointed by the fact that you could only associate Evernote Notes with Standard objects.

Evernote have now published simple instructions on how to associate Evernotes with any custom object in Salesforce.

Here is a link to the instructions. I warn you it does involve creating a VisualForce Page but hey its always good to learn new things.

There needs to be a point to data integration. Simply bringing in data and displaying it is not enough. Your business needs to have a plan for how that data will be used after it is integrated. Often I get the feeling that organizations treat Salesforce.com like some sort of data warehouse and then complain afterwards that producers aren't adopting the system. The majority of producers are not secretly hiding aspirations of being data scientists. The majority just want to service their existing book and make more money. Integrating back-end or third party data into Salesforce.com and hoping that suddenly it is going to inspire your producers to adopt Salesforce and put your agency on a pathway to success, is fools gold. So what's the answer? In a nutshell, you need to develop a plan for how the data is intended to be used. If you don't have a plan or a use, then don't integrate it. Success comes from making Salesforce.com part of a successful process and integrated data needs to have a clear role in that process.

About the authorAndrew Bartels has been recognized by Salesforce.com as one of the leading innovators with regard to implementing Salesforce.com in the insurance vertical. As a CTO for a Top 100 Independent Insurance Agency, he oversaw the deployment of a Salesforce.com system in 2010. Over the next three years, he focused on customizing the system and implementing best practices for the insurance industry, ultimately generating a significant ROI for the firm. Andrew brings years of hard fought experience to our clients so that they can accelerate their ROI in implementing Salesforce.com.

There's a tee shirt I've always wanted to make. It would go something like this. On the front would be the words "Salesforce Sold You the Gauge" and then on the back it would say "And We Made It Move." Ok have a laugh. The truth is that the back should say, "People Move the Needle." This is true about most things. You can implement all the technology you like, but ultimately it is a combination of that technology, focused strategy and discipline (aka management) that moves the needle and all of these aspects involve people. So what's the point? The point is that when it comes to investing in technology, whether it be Salesforce or any other, it is critical to remember that success will largely be driven by people. How people use the system. How they choose to perceive the system. Do they view the system as something that will assist them in achieving their goals or will they view it as an obstacle? These are not new questions and they are not specific to technology roll outs. They apply to any large scale initiative that affects large numbers of employees. Ever heard a co-worker say "Oh I think that's a silly idea. Nobody ever asked us what we thought."? My analysis of a comment like this has very little to do with the initative been disparaged. Rather it has everything to do with the fact that the employee feels disconnected from the initiative They don't have a stake in its success and they don't understand the reasons behind it.The bottom line is that as human beings we support initiatives we feel we have a stake in. Successful advertising and political campaigns are examples of this from the public sphere. I hear the skeptics out there saying "But you can't have the whole company on the implementation team." Ok then, think about it like this. The most successful example of this 'stakeholder' mentality are sports fans. Ultimately the fan has very little physical connection to the team but any of us that are one or know one realizes how vested they can be in their teams' success. Think of a Steelers Fan with their little yellow towel or the most loyal of all, a Dallas Cowboys fan. So let's remember how important it is to develop a strategy that encourages the user base to take a stake in the success of the project, whether it be Salesforce or any another important company wide initiative. Now, I will be the first to admit that this is not an easy goal to achieve and it won't be solved with a few glossy posters in the hallways. It will take a lot of work. That said, however, the payoff in terms of adoption if you can achieve 'buy in' are huge and will pay off for the life of the project. So when it comes to technology projects, sure think about customization, code and workflows but don't forget your people.

About the authorAndrew Bartels has been recognized by Salesforce.com as one of the leading innovators with regard to implementing Salesforce.com in the insurance vertical. As a CTO for a Top 100 Independent Insurance Agency, he oversaw the deployment of a Salesforce.com system in 2010. Over the next three years, he focused on customizing the system and implementing best practices for the insurance industry, ultimately generating a significant ROI for the firm. Andrew brings years of hard fought experience to our clients so that they can accelerate their ROI in implementing Salesforce.com.

I often read blogs and articles about about how best to use leads or accounts in Salesforce.com. Sometimes they are about how to qualify leads or accounts. Sometimes they contain guidance related to when to add a new opportunity. Don't get me wrong, all of this is critically important. However, when driving adoption of a new system, it is important to use the language of the new user.

What do I mean by this? What is this language of the new user? Well, what do leads, accounts and/or opportunities all have in common? Fundamentally they are all lists. Lists are something any user, new or experienced, can relate to. We make lists everyday whether it be in our personal lives to remember to buy milk or in our professional lives to plan a meeting or prioritize a set of tasks.

We make lists to remember because in our personal lives, forgetting has a down side such as no milk for breakfast. Lists keep us organized and the more organized we are, the more effective we tend to be. So ultimately if we approach leads, accounts and/or opportunities as lists and present them to producers as such then it can be shown that most producers, especially those new to Salesforce.com, will get it. They will better understand because what many producers seek is better organization. They want to be more efficient and get more done in the hours they have available. This is a great start to showing them how Salesforce.com can transform leads, accounts and opportunities into lists, which they can use to manage their day to day professional lives.

So, how can we present leads, accounts and opportunities as lists? SalesForce.com has a great and I feel under utilized feature, named 'views'. 'Views' are by all intents and purposes lists with all sorts of great features that you might find in a tool like MS Excel. For example, you can sort columns in ascending or descending order. Users have the ability to create their own custom views containing only the columns they deem important and to add simple or complex filters to focus on just the records the user deems important. Additionally using the inline editing feature you can edit list information without ever leaving the page much as you would do in MS Excel.

Ultimately, lists are about organization. Organization is about structure. Structure comes from systems. Successful sales persons are by definition not lucky rather they are disciplined and organized. Explore the methods of every successful sales person or producer and you will find a system. Whether it be an intricate system of paper files or a mastery of ACT, Goldmine or Excel. The stories of producers, who into their 70's still bring in a million dollars of new revenue, religiously have their assistant bring them their 'prospecting' files on a Tuesday morning abound in different forms through out the annals of successful brokerages. Ultimately these individuals are disciplined and organized. What differentiates lists in Salesforce.com from lists created in other forms are the tools and functionality that Salesforce.com wraps around lists. Not only are your lists instantly searchable but a list created in Salesforce.com has depth. Information entered as lists in Salesforce is instantly reportable and dashboard-able. So instead of being visible only to the creator, lists created in Salesforce can be shared or made visible to team members. As we all know that the fundamentals of building a 'book of business' are prospecting, up-selling and cross selling. In most cases collaboration and visibility is required to achieve success in these endeavors. Developing lists is the first step in putting in place the foundations of a successful prospecting, up- sell/cross sell strategy. So when one analyzes the objectives of both sales leadership and producers, you will quickly see from the above, that lists are a way to begin to achieve both sets of objectives. Producers for the most part want to sell more and increasing organization and structure are the beginnings of meeting that goal. Leadership wants visibility so that they can ensure that producers are focused on the agreed goals and objectives, while enabling them to coach and facilitate when needed. All in all when you connect Salesforce.com with the concept of lists you provide a win win environment that is easy to understand and get started with while allowing scalability and flexibility in the future.

So when introducing Salesforce.com to producers make sure you use the language of the new user.

About the authorAndrew Bartels has been recognized by Salesforce.com as one of the leading innovators with regard to implementing Salesforce.com in the insurance vertical. As a CTO for a Top 100 Independent Insurance Agency, he oversaw the deployment of a Salesforce.com system in 2010. Over the next three years, he focused on customizing the system and implementing best practices for the insurance industry, ultimately generating a significant ROI for the firm. Andrew brings years of hard fought experience to our clients so that they can accelerate their ROI in implementing Salesforce.com.